Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like.

Email This Story

Send email to this addressEnter Your NameAdd a comment hereVerification

Complying with new district procedures, Principal Karen LeCocq puts forth new regulations to the 2017-2018 school year.

Some of these major changes include new dress-code and parking policies, along with a completely revamped bell schedule district-wide.

“All of us high school and middle school principals got together and came up with new policies, and that then gets submitted to the ISD, and then they hand that to the board,” LeCocq said. “So the school board are the ones that make the ultimate decision, approval or denial, of what we suggest.”

The board has authorized students to wear jeans with rips in them, as long as the rips lay below fingertip length.

“We felt as though ripped jeans didn’t have any indiscretion with modesty,” Principal LeCocq said. “As long as those rips are below fingertip length, they are fine.”

The district decided to put every school on the same schedule in an attempt to facilitate with the CTE center and other scheduling processes. In addition, his new bell schedule includes a daily advisory period between second and third period.

“We went to other schools and took things that we liked and implemented them, and took things we didn’t like and changed them up,” Assistant Principal, Mr. Westhora said. “We also did the pilot program last year to figure out the kinks and give students a taste of advisory everyday, and the feedback we got back was that you guys really liked it and that it was helpful.”

Passing period has been reduced from six to five minutes to compensate for the new 25-minute advisory period.

“Looking at it last year, most students could get in their class by the fifth minute,” Mr. Westhora said. “However, with the new grade this year we now have over 1800 students, and this has created a bit of a clog especially by the C hall stairs, so we are hoping students will start to use more of the back stairwell area or go through the A hall to spread it out.”

Rather than struggling to delineate where students and teachers can park, all parking is now open to everyone.

“Drivers are allowed to park anywhere this year, except band parking during marching season, as long as they have purchased the $50 parking pass,” Westhora said. “If a student parks without a pass, they are fined $10 the first three times, $15 the fourth, and then their ability to park on campus will be revoked.”

Reedy also increased the number of ways a student can get in the school in the morning. Students can now enter through the gym area, band hall, and the auditorium.

“With us opening up parking we had to look at where students are entering through the building,” Mr. Westhora said. “With that we also changed a few of the routes; we have buses now picking up and dropping off at the auditorium. ”

Lastly, for safety reasons, parents are no longer allowed to drop off items or food for their students this year.

“According to board policy, everyone that drops things off must check in with the receptionist and be on the student’s contact list,” Mrs. LeCocq said. “Last year we were having people who were friends or whoever just drop things off, and that leads to things being dropped off that we can’t control.”

After testing out these new changes, the district will re-evaluate and apply whatever needed to the following school year, to better improve our education system even more.

“Progress is impossible without change,” influential politician, George Bernard Shaw once said. “And those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”